Progress amid track dispute

TrI-Rail still at odds with firm over maintenance

When mechanical problems delayed 162 Tri-Rail trains from October to February, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority looked to hold somebody accountable.

So the authority levied up to $170,000 in damages against the firm hired to keep trains clean and in good working order.

But Bombardier Transportation, the Montreal-based company that took over the job in July, is fighting the charges and refuses to pay.

The standoff puts into sharp relief the conflict between the company - which says it inherited a system far worse than had been disclosed - and Tri-Rail, which wants to curb late trains at a time gas prices are climbing and weekday ridership is soaring to new records.

When Bombardier assumed maintenance duties, the number of commuter trains out of service soared in July and August, with problems ranging from foul-smelling toilets and roach infestations to sweltering conditions. The company's seven-year, $97 million contract with Tri-Rail allowed a three-month break-in period before damages could be assessed. When that ended in October, the damages started mounting.

Although mechanical problems continued, Bombardier officials asked Tri-Rail in November to waive any damages, according to documents obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

"We have demonstrated that we are working above and beyond what would be considered a normal mobilization start up," the company wrote in a letter to Tri-Rail.

The company said Tri-Rail didn't provide "accurate, complete and unbiased information" on the condition of locomotives and passenger cars before the contract was signed. And it accused Tri-Rail of allowing the equipment to deteriorate before it took on the job, "making it impossible to provide optimum reliability for the fleet in the time allowed."

That sparked a sharp rebuttal from Tri-Rail.

Ed Byers, Tri-Rail's operations manager, said Bombardier inspected equipment before it bid on the contract and had access to equipment records. He said the company also hired one of the past maintenance contractor's top employees.

"Even if maintenance deficiencies existed ... Bombardier was given three months to bring the fleet up to the maintenance standards required by the contract," Byers wrote in a Dec. 24 letter to Bombardier.

"Bombardier's failure to achieve the maintenance standards under the contract appears to be principally caused by turnover in its key management positions and its current lack of permanent on-site management," he said.

While the two sides continue to negotiate over damages, the number of trains late because of breakdowns has decreased.

"We're cautiously optimistic they've turned the corner," said Joseph Giulietti, Tri-Rail's executive director. "But we still have a long way to go before things are where we expect them to be."

Bombardier spokesman David Slack declined to talk specifically about the damages but said the company was making progress at turning around the condition of Tri-Rail's fleet.

"Are we perfect yet? No," he said. "Clearly, there is room for us to do more work."

Passengers such as Steve Daun, of Boca Raton, seem to agree.

Daun, who rides the train weekdays to Miami, said the trains are running better lately with fewer mechanical issues. But he said they aren't clean.

"The restrooms now only smell occasionally," he said. "However, the trains are filthy inside, especially toward the end of the day. The other day I felt something on my leg and it was a piece of gum. It is as if nobody cleans the trains all day and the trash just builds up."

But Daun also noted, "The trains have been running on schedule the majority of the time. It still beats driving 100-plus miles a day."

Compare his experience to the time shortly after Bombardier took over, when Louise Wardell said her commute from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach began one morning with the smell of sewage from an overflowing toilet.

"The sewage was all over the floor," she said. "The smell was horrendous. Everyone tracked the sewage all over the car and people who came in the other door were putting their backpacks on the floor."

Back then, Tri-Rail often had no equipment to spare if a locomotive or coach needed repairs, because too many vehicles were out of service. With the backlog of repairs being whittled down, Tri-Rail now has two spare engines it can rely on should another need to be repaired.

Slack said the company's local crew focused first on fixing major issues that kept engines and cars from not running. Air conditioning now works in all of the coaches. Toilets don't overflow anymore.

The crew is now trying to get into a "preventative maintenance" mode and working on smaller items such as cleaning the cars.

"It is an older fleet that wasn't in the state of repair that it shouldn't have been," Slack said. "The challenges were more severe than we thought."

Giulietti said the authority hired Bombardier because it was the most qualified. Despite a rocky start, he said he is confident the company can turn things around, pointing to its experience maintaining more than 8,000 rail vehicles around the world, including rail car fleets in Los Angeles and San Diego.

"If they get their act together, we're expecting great things from them," Giulietti said.

Michael Turnbell can be reached at mturnbell@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4155 or 561-243-6550.